Rainn Wilson, star of The Office, has opened out about his childhood tragedy.
The actor, who played Dwight Schrute in the US sitcom, discussed how his upbringing influenced his mental health.
Rainn claimed that his birth mother ‘went off’ when he was two, and he was raised by his father, abstract painter and science fiction writer Robert G Wilson, who died in 2020.
Before moving to Seattle, Washington, the 57-year-old stated he spent several years with his father as a ‘abandoned baby boy’ in the ‘actual’ jungle of Nicaragua.
‘Abandoned toddler, that’ll f*** you up… and [there] was this weird gaslighting mind f***, he told Steven Bartlett on The Diary of A CEO podcast.
The Meg actor lived in the US with his father and his stepmother, who he described as being trapped in a ‘loveless’ and ’empty’ marriage that had a knock-on effect on his living arrangements.
Rainn described his childhood home as a ‘loveless shell’ as a result of their bad marriage and other issues.
He said: ‘I experienced a lot of pain in my life and a lot of suffering with anxiety and depression and addiction.
‘As I dove into recovery and the therapeutic process, I can pin that squarely on a lot of gross imbalances and trauma that I suffered as a child.’
Rainn also said that he suffered with his mental health while working on The Office, which premiered in 2005 and lasted 188 episodes before ending in 2013.
‘There were times where I really struggled. Here I was on the greatest job I could ever imagine but I was [angry] that I couldn’t get more movies, and [more] deals.’
He added: ‘I spent a lot of unnecessary time in angst and anguish and discontent at a time when I should have just been enjoying it and drinking it in.’
The Office was an American remake of Stephen Merchant and Ricky Gervais’s UK comedy of the same name.
Steve Carrell played Dunder Mifflin CEO Michael Scott, John Krasinki played Jim Halpert, and Jenna Fischer played Pam Beesly.
The programme lasted nine seasons and received several honours, as well as international praise for being a successful American adaptation of a British comedy.
Rainn recently expressed his opinions on climate change and described a recent stunt he performed in Greenland to draw attention to the subject.
Watch The Office on Netflix.
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